Brett Favre plans to hold Jets hostage over “retirement plans”

Having milked the equivocation over coming out retirement for most of last summer, Brett Favre plans to make sure he’s the central focus of the sports media for months to come.  In the process, he’s got no problem holding up the Jets’ ability to plan their future while he decides.  Apparently not content with having thrown former head coach Eric Mangini under the bus, Favre is going to pull the same act with the Jets that he did last summer with his old team, the Green Bay Packers.  More specifically, he doesn’t have a clue whether he wants to play in 2009 or not but he’s going to make the Jets stew and make sports fans sit through every diva-like moment of his self created soap opera.

Favre’s legacy has already gone from being one of the most respected team leaders in NFL history, to that of a self absorbed, difficult to coach “gunslinger” who has no issue putting his selfish interests above that of whichever team he may be playing for at the moment.  “The Gunslinger” put the Jets on notice that he’s going to play “hard to get”:

"I have the ability to turn it off just like that,'' he said.”I don't feel I have anything else to prove. Do I have to redeem myself for the last five games? No. I could be trying to do that until I'm 60 years old. There is nothing left out there for me from that standpoint. I'm disappointed with the last five games, sure, but I know I did everything I could have.'

"I didn't play as well down the stretch. It was probably a little bit of everything. It's hard for me, but I have to say I gave out down the stretch.''

Favre claims that this time he’s not going to make himself the center of attention in a media circus, a claim as difficult to buy as Michael Jackson saying that he’s settling down with a wife for life in the suburbs:

"I'm an emotional guy, and I'm sure people are tired of seeing me get emotional. People would probably say, 'Oh, here he goes again.' I think it would just be better for me to just thank the Jets, and I sincerely mean that. It was well worth what I invested. But I'm going to just quietly step away if that's what happens.''

So get ready for a summer filled with the same Brett Favre soap opera antics that sports fans came to “know and love” last year.  In the meantime, the New York Jets will be kept on pins and needles waiting to see if they mortgaged their future and fired a head coach for no good reason at all.  So will it be a new era for the New York Jets, or will it be another season of “The Gunslinger’s” self absorbed behavior and inimitable “arm punts”?  Stay tuned to find out!